Baltimore's Suggs Screams Like a Crazy Man on the Field—and His Teammates Love it

Forgive the New England Patriots if they were confused on Sunday night as time ticked down in their AFC championship loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Through the stunned, silent Gillette Stadium, they probably didn't understand why one player was repeatedly shouting something about the "Catalina Wine Mixer," a curiously random reference to the 2008 Will Ferrell movie "Step Brothers."

The noise was coming from Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs, who is the loudest man on the field (any field) and all but certainly the loudest player in the NFL, according to his teammates.

Suggs has a well-documented aptitude for chasing down quarterbacks. But to those who find themselves within earshot during games, he's also renowned for screaming anything that pops into his mind at the top of his lungs. And here's the funny thing: Those teammates aren't annoyed. They say Suggs's bombastic baritone comes in handy in a sport where communication is crucial. They say it cuts through the most hostile crowd noise in the NFL and can be heard clearly from all 11 positions on the field.

Let's put a fine point on this: The Baltimore Ravens think having a screaming nutjob in their midst actually helps them win football games.

"No matter how loud the crowd is, I'm like 'I can still hear you, bro.' It's crazy being able to hear him over any crowd," said defensive tackle Terrence Cody. "We'll be having problems stopping the run and [Suggs] will just start yelling and stuff. We can hear him and we know what we have to do."

When he's not bellowing lines from Will Ferrell movies, Suggs can shout out any number of directions to teammates: He may point out a tell in the opposing offense's alignment, indicate if a player is lined up in a peculiar manner, or point out if the play is likely moving in one specific direction. Suggs's famously thorough devotion to studying game film helps him to identify any of these subtle movements before each play. So the Ravens' defensive players say they have what amounts to Suggs in their ear at all times.

Suggs also just likes yelling. He loves yelling random movie quotes as much as he does helping players make strategic adjustments.

"Most of the time we'll be pass rushing and he'll yell, 'This is how I want it,' and I can hear him," said defensive lineman Pernell McPhee, who said that Suggs is "by far" the loudest person he's ever heard in football.

Besides being an accomplished pass-rusher who's collecting 84.5 sacks over his career, including 14 in 2011, Suggs is especially good at one of the dark arts of linebacking: reading where the ball is going to go. His voice does the rest. "He helps me out tremendously. He studies so much film," Arthur Jones said. "Especially when I'm [playing defensive tackle] and he'll yell 'hey, Art, it's coming our way'."

Ravens linebacker Paul Kruger said Suggs is so loud that he cannot tune him out, even when he badly wants to. Suggs's noise isn't limited to game day, Kruger said. He also yells throughout practice—his usual mixture of useful information and pure nonsense.

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"He yells anything and everything. Whatever pops into his head, there's no governor," said linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo. Teammates say that last week, Suggs's most baffling yells centered around the team needing to "find Costello's rat," a reference to Martin Scorsese's "The Departed." How this was relevant remains a mystery. But his material is always changing.

"He'll have a new thing for the Super Bowl. We don't know yet, he's going to watch 20 movies, he'll find quotes and we'll have to figure out what he's yelling about," Ayanbadejo said.

After the Ravens toppled the Patriots, Suggs yelled, among other things "Have fun at the Pro Bowl," a reference to the game some Patriots will now play in since they aren't going to the Super Bowl. He also talked about arrogance of the Patriots and many unprintable things about the organization.

Suggs cut a media session short on Sunday before yelling at reporters for "not being on the bandwagon" and using multiple references to "12," his name for Tom Brady, the Patriots quarterback his team had defeated.

He left a few hours after the game screaming his loudest line of the day, which echoed throughout the hallways in Foxborough: "And the Ravens are going to the Super Bowl."

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